HOW LONG WILL COLD FOOD LAST DURING A POWER OUTAGE?
Modern refrigeration systems keep food at safe temperatures. This helps to reduce the growth of bacteria in your food that can lead to food poisoning. This is why you have to keep your power supply in check to reduce the risk of food-borne diseases.
Recording the elapsed time is important. In the case power outage (that is, it takes more than 4 hours, and there is no immediate re-connection probability), the safety of food is a big problem.
Unless cold storage is available in the 2 hours after a power outage, all potentially dangerous foods such as meat, poultry, seafood and ready-to-eat foods stored in refrigerators or coolers should be:
Housed in an alternative cold store, z. As refrigerators with ice or ice tiles or in refrigerators for family and friends
- Eat immediately
- If you have a refrigerator thermometer and you saved the time the power was turned off, you immediately ate or thrown it when the temperature rose for more than 2 to more than 5 degrees hours
- If you do not have a refrigerator thermometer and no other refrigerator, it will not be available immediately after 2 hours.
Time and temperature are the most important measures to determine if food should be considered as potentially dangerous.
THE “4 HOURS / 2 HOURS” RULE FOR SAFE FOOD STORAGE
The following actions are recommended for any potentially hazardous food that was between 5 ° C and 60 ° C for a total of:
- less than 2 hours: in the fridge or use immediately
- more than 2 hours, but less than 4 hours: use immediately
- 4 hours or more: must be discarded.
Write down the elapsed time. If possible, use a clock and a thermometer to follow these recommendations for time and temperature. First, eat perishable foods and keep dry and canned until the end.
Sudden or unexpected power outages
A sudden or unexpected power failure will not give you much time to keep your food safely. Your food will stay in your fridge for 2 hours, but there are a few things you can do:
- If you have enough freezer space after 2 hours, you must remove the food from the refrigerator. Put them in the freezer or esky with ice tiles.
- Do not open the freezer door unless this is necessary, as this will reduce the time in which the contents remain frozen.
- If your freezer is efficient and your door seals are in good condition, you can keep the food frozen for 1-2 days.
- Parents, friends, or neighbors can provide alternate storage.
DURING POWER OUTAGES
Food stored in refrigerators
Your food will stay in your fridge for 2 hours. If more than 4 hours have passed, throw away the food. Do not open the refrigerator door in case of power failure, unless this is necessary.
The best option is to keep chilled food as cold as possible by not opening the door unless you need to remove food to eat or check the temperature after 2 hours. or place items in the freezer. If it is not possible:
- Remove the ice blocks from the freezer and place them in an Esky.
- Remove all meat, poultry, dairy and potentially dangerous foods (e.g., sauces, pies, ham, prepared and cooked foods) from the refrigerator and place in a fridge with frozen bricks or teabags. Gel.
- Salted butter, margarine, and hard cheese are safe at room temperature.
- Place ice or ice tiles in all stored foods to ensure a consistent temperature. Make sure the radiator cover seals well.
- If the temperature of food stored in a refrigerator or refrigerator is less than 5 ° C for less than 2 hours, you should find another refrigeration solution at less than 5 ° C, or freeze it or use it immediately.
- Food stored in the refrigerator for 4 hours or at a temperature above 5 ° C must be discarded.
All in all, these safety measures do not seem to be the most preventive way of sorting out power outage in your home. Also, you can have an extra power supply like inverter or generator to keep your power supply constant while you run a check on the cause of the outage. Health is essential, and this is why you have to contact your local professional to run a check on your home.